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  <div class="section" id="module-stat">
<h1>11.3. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">stat</span></tt> &#8212; Interpreting <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">stat()</span></tt> results<a class="headerlink" href="#module-stat" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">stat</span></tt> module defines constants and functions for interpreting the
results of <a title="os.stat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.stat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.stat()</span></tt></a>, <a title="os.fstat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.fstat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.fstat()</span></tt></a> and <a title="os.lstat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.lstat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.lstat()</span></tt></a> (if they
exist).  For complete details about the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">stat</span></tt>, <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">fstat</span></tt> and
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">lstat</span></tt> calls, consult the documentation for your system.</p>
<p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">stat</span></tt> module defines the following functions to test for specific file
types:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_ISDIR">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_ISDIR</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_ISDIR" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return non-zero if the mode is from a directory.</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_ISCHR">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_ISCHR</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_ISCHR" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return non-zero if the mode is from a character special device file.</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_ISBLK">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_ISBLK</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_ISBLK" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return non-zero if the mode is from a block special device file.</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_ISREG">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_ISREG</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_ISREG" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return non-zero if the mode is from a regular file.</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_ISFIFO">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_ISFIFO</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_ISFIFO" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return non-zero if the mode is from a FIFO (named pipe).</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_ISLNK">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_ISLNK</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_ISLNK" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return non-zero if the mode is from a symbolic link.</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_ISSOCK">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_ISSOCK</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_ISSOCK" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return non-zero if the mode is from a socket.</dd></dl>

<p>Two additional functions are defined for more general manipulation of the file&#8217;s
mode:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_IMODE">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_IMODE</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_IMODE" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return the portion of the file&#8217;s mode that can be set by <a title="os.chmod" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.chmod"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.chmod()</span></tt></a>&#8212;that is, the file&#8217;s permission bits, plus the sticky bit, set-group-id, and
set-user-id bits (on systems that support them).</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="stat.S_IFMT">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">S_IFMT</tt><big>(</big><em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.S_IFMT" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return the portion of the file&#8217;s mode that describes the file type (used by the
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">S_IS*()</span></tt> functions above).</dd></dl>

<p>Normally, you would use the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.path.is*()</span></tt> functions for testing the type
of a file; the functions here are useful when you are doing multiple tests of
the same file and wish to avoid the overhead of the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">stat</span></tt> system call
for each test.  These are also useful when checking for information about a file
that isn&#8217;t handled by <a title="Operations on pathnames." class="reference external" href="os.path.html#module-os.path"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.path</span></tt></a>, like the tests for block and character
devices.</p>
<p>All the variables below are simply symbolic indexes into the 10-tuple returned
by <a title="os.stat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.stat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.stat()</span></tt></a>, <a title="os.fstat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.fstat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.fstat()</span></tt></a> or <a title="os.lstat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.lstat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.lstat()</span></tt></a>.</p>
<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_MODE">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_MODE</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_MODE" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Inode protection mode.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_INO">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_INO</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_INO" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Inode number.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_DEV">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_DEV</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_DEV" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Device inode resides on.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_NLINK">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_NLINK</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_NLINK" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Number of links to the inode.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_UID">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_UID</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_UID" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>User id of the owner.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_GID">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_GID</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_GID" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Group id of the owner.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_SIZE">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_SIZE</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_SIZE" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Size in bytes of a plain file; amount of data waiting on some special files.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_ATIME">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_ATIME</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_ATIME" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Time of last access.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_MTIME">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_MTIME</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_MTIME" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Time of last modification.</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="stat.ST_CTIME">
<tt class="descclassname">stat.</tt><tt class="descname">ST_CTIME</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#stat.ST_CTIME" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>The &#8220;ctime&#8221; as reported by the operating system.  On some systems (like Unix) is
the time of the last metadata change, and, on others (like Windows), is the
creation time (see platform documentation for details).</dd></dl>

<p>The interpretation of &#8220;file size&#8221; changes according to the file type.  For plain
files this is the size of the file in bytes.  For FIFOs and sockets under most
flavors of Unix (including Linux in particular), the &#8220;size&#8221; is the number of
bytes waiting to be read at the time of the call to <a title="os.stat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.stat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.stat()</span></tt></a>,
<a title="os.fstat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.fstat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.fstat()</span></tt></a>, or <a title="os.lstat" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.lstat"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.lstat()</span></tt></a>; this can sometimes be useful, especially
for polling one of these special files after a non-blocking open.  The meaning
of the size field for other character and block devices varies more, depending
on the implementation of the underlying system call.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">os</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nn">sys</span>
<span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">stat</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="o">*</span>

<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">walktree</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">top</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">callback</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="sd">&#39;&#39;&#39;recursively descend the directory tree rooted at top,</span>
<span class="sd">       calling the callback function for each regular file&#39;&#39;&#39;</span>

    <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">f</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">listdir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">top</span><span class="p">):</span>
        <span class="n">pathname</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">top</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">)</span>
        <span class="n">mode</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">stat</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">pathname</span><span class="p">)[</span><span class="n">ST_MODE</span><span class="p">]</span>
        <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">S_ISDIR</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mode</span><span class="p">):</span>
            <span class="c"># It&#39;s a directory, recurse into it</span>
            <span class="n">walktree</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">pathname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">callback</span><span class="p">)</span>
        <span class="k">elif</span> <span class="n">S_ISREG</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mode</span><span class="p">):</span>
            <span class="c"># It&#39;s a file, call the callback function</span>
            <span class="n">callback</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">pathname</span><span class="p">)</span>
        <span class="k">else</span><span class="p">:</span>
            <span class="c"># Unknown file type, print a message</span>
            <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;Skipping </span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s">&#39;</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="n">pathname</span>

<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">visitfile</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">file</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&#39;visiting&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">file</span>

<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">__name__</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s">&#39;__main__&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span>
    <span class="n">walktree</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">argv</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mf">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">visitfile</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
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